Public defenders for the truck driver charged with killing six people in an Interstate 75 crash want out-of-town jurors to visit the crime scene during his upcoming trial to “get a lay of the land.”
“It’s highly relevant,” attorney Erinn O’Leary said Tuesday in Hamilton County Criminal Court. “Because the state has to show intoxication was a proximate cause and, in fact, there were many other factors that contributed to the accident.”
Prosecutors say Benjamin Brewer, 41, was driving for far longer than the legal limit and was high on drugs when his truck plowed into stopped traffic near exit 11 on I-75 in Ooltewah on June 25, 2015. The impact killed six people, injured several more and spawned numerous lawsuits in state and federal court asking for damages.
O’Leary argued construction had started several miles down the road, traffic had backed up, and cars were stopping suddenly when Brewer approached in his truck.
“You’re approaching a place where the road veers off to the left and you don’t have an accurate view,” she said.